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Difficult Artifact 2: Assumption about ELL Public Service 
Announcement 
This was the first assignment of the course and it was given 
out at the end of the first evening of class. Students were asked to 
read a short collection of assumptions about ELLs and information 
that detailed the information and misinformation about the origins of 
that assumption. Their job was to choose one of interest and create a 
public service announcement that would help dispel 
misunderstandings about ELLs. It was assigned as an individual 
activity and no examples or written instructions were provided. Since 
this was the first assignment of the course and she did not know her 
classmates or the professor well, the student participant found the 
individual nature of the assignment challenging. In addition, this was 
the first time she had ever been assigned a poster creation activity for 
an academic assignment, so the format for showing her understanding 
was incongruent with her other educational experiences. She found 
the concept of ‘assumption’ difficult, along with the evidence she was 
given to read about the assumption. In some cases, she felt that the 
evidence supported the assumption and so it made the objective of the 
assignment difficult to determine. Furthermore, the fact that no 
written directions or examples were given at the time the activity was 
disseminated added to her challenges. Finally, when other students 
presented their assumptions, she had trouble understanding them since 
she had not had time to read ahead and plan for listening to their 
presentations.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 
Some key understandings about the experiences of teaching ELLs and 
learning at the graduate level in a university setting were revealed 
from this study. As a result of our discussion and reflections, some 
key suggestions for both instructors and students can be made.

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